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Worth her salt

Jerrold Nathan's portrait of Jessie Street shows the elegant side of a many-faceted lady.

The considered life

Andrew Sayers asks whether a portrait can truly be the examination of a life.

Chance encounter

Joanna Gilmour explores the life and times of one of Melbourne's early socialites, Jessie Eyre Williams.

Portrait 33

This issue features Hermannsburg pottery, Nicole Kidman, Ken Done, Jessie Street, two gladiators, the Portraits+Architecture exhibition and more.

Australia’s great internationalists

Penelope Grist explores the United Nations stories in the Gallery’s collection.

Observation Point

Portrait photography, by definition, is a collaboration. It is also the grandest of lies masquerading as the ultimate truth.

Obey

Michael Desmond investigates the street art of Shepard Fairey, who was catapulted to fame during the 2008 presidential election with his resonant image of Barack Obama.

Dupain detective

Johanna McMahon revels in history and mystery in pursuit of a suite of unknown portrait subjects.

Aretha Brown

Gumbaynggirr artist Aretha Brown talks street art, collaboration and ghost stories with First Nations Curator and Meriam woman, Rebecca Ray.

Unboxed

Sandra Bruce explores a new acquisition that has within it a story of interconnectivities in the Australian art world.

Beguiling impressions

Sarah Engledow is seduced by the portraits and the connections between the artists and their subjects in the exhibition Impressions: Painting light and life.

Portrait 69

In conversation with Aretha Brown, Pieter Roelofs on Vermeer, humanoid robots, the nationwide search for Archibald portraits, and 25 years of collecting at the National Portrait Gallery.

Progressive pictures

Athol Shmith’s photographs contributed to the emergence of a new vision of Australian womanhood.

Natural, artistic and unselfconscious

Angus Trumble gazes at the once bright star of photographer Ruth Hollick.

Exposed: Voyeurism Surveillance and the camera since 1870

The Tate/SFMOMA exhibition Exposed examined the role of photography in voyeurism and how it challenges ideas of privacy and propriety.

Wunderkind lost

Inga Walton on the brief but brilliant life of Hugh Ramsay.

Northern exposure

Phil Manning celebrates a century of Brisbane photographic portraiture.

Paper, boy

Peter Wilmoth’s boy-journalist toolkit for antagonising an Australian political giant.

The Saint and the merchant

Emanuel Solomon gave shelter to the Sisters of St Joseph upon the excommunication of St Mary MacKillop.

Pretty in peach

Little treasures

The acquisition of the ivory miniatures of Mortimer and Mrs Lewis.

The existential lens

Stephen Zagala discusses Richard Avedon’s work from an Australian perspective.

Final frame

Karl James reflects on soldier portraiture during the Great War.

The art of peace

Sean Davey captures the portrait of a nation renewed.

Suave

Charles Haddon Chambers the Australian-born playboy playwright settled permanently in London in 1880 but never lost his Australian stance when satirising the English.

Prime number

Diana Warnes discusses the portrait of the Australian mathematician Terence Tao.

Something old, something new

Andrew Mayo considers the changing face of modern wedding photography through the eyes of two of its finest exponents, Dan O’Day and Kelly Tunney.

The house, the horse, the wife and the offspring

Joanna Gilmour writes about the portraiture of the colonial artist William Nicholas.

Vintage Max

Gael Newton delves into the life and art of renowned Australian photographer, Max Dupain.

Fugue in Yellow

Roger Benjamin explores the intriguing union of Lina Bryans and Alex Jelinek.

People are people

Sandra Bruce chats with seven-time NPPP finalist Chris Budgeon about photography, guitars and representing the human story.

Brothers on farms

Malcolm Robertson tells the family history of one of Australia's earliest patrons of the arts, his Scottish born great great great grandfather, William Robertson.

The bright-eyed Mariner

It's a Mora!

Select extracts from Mirka Mora's autobiography, Wicked but Virtuous, provide rich accompaniment to recent Gallery acquisitions.  

The boy, the bed and the gun

Christopher Chapman contemplates the provocative performance art of Chris Burden. 

Miscellaneous obsessions

William Yang shares the stories behind his autobiographical self portraits that celebrate his cultural heritage and identity.

At easel

Tim Bonyhady recalls his experience as sitter for his close friend and former National Portrait Gallery Director, the late Andrew Sayers.

Lovers of light

Dr Sarah Engledow traces the significant links between Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo and Evelyn Chapman through their portraits.

Axe Me Biggie

Australian photojournalist Stephen Dupont's Afghanistan project captures the human experience of a country in reconstruction.

On the road again

Deborah Hill talks figures with character, as the National Portrait Gallery touring exhibitions program welcomes its millionth visitor.

Finest quality

Joanna Gilmour explores the life of Chinese-Australian businessman and philanthropist Quong Tart.

Basking in light

Pieter Roelofs, Head of Painting and Sculpture at Rijksmuseum and co-curator of Vermeer, delves into the largest-ever exhibition of the master artist.

Ready , set... shoot

The exhibition Flash: Australian Athletes in Focus offers various interpretations of sporting men and women by five Australian photographers.

Aussies all

The exhibition Aussies all features the ecclectic portrait photography of Rennie Ellis which captures Australian life during the 70s and 80s.

Arthur as Alyosha?

Patrick McCaughey explores a striking Boyd self portrait.

Unknown drawer

Dempsey’s People curator David Hansen chronicles a research tale replete with serendipity, adventure and Tasmanian tigers.

The Multifarious Career of George Selth Coppin

George Selth Coppin (1819-1906) comedian, impresario and entrepreneur, was a driving force of the early Australian theatre.

A man of superior attainments

Joanna Gilmour explores the life of a colonial portrait artist, writer and rogue Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.

Finding Mrs Frisby

Robyn Sweaney's quiet Violet obsession.

A handful of sand

Ellen Kent examines the portrait of Vincent Lingiari and Prime Minister Gough Whitlam taken by photographer Mervyn Bishop.

City boys

Christopher Chapman immerses himself in Larry Clark’s field of vision.

Portrait of the artist as a young man

Dr Sarah Engledow explores the early life and career of John Brack.

Painting them gently

Penny Grist on motivation, method and melancholy in the portraiture of Darren McDonald.

Facing Facts

Former NPG Director, Andrew Sayers describes the 1922 Self-portrait with Gladioli by George Lambert.

The Avedon effect

Dr Christopher Chapman explores how we can understand Richard Avedon's photographs.  

Australian Princess

The full-length portrait of HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark by artist Jiawei Shen, has become a destination piece for visitors.

In the round

Andrew Sayers outlines the highlights of the National Portrait Gallery's display of portrait sculpture.

Queen of cartes

Joanna Gilmour discusses the role of the carte de visite in portraiture’s democratisation, and its harnessing by Victoria, the world’s first media monarch.

Natural born stiller

Penelope Grist speaks to Robert McFarlane about shooting for the stars.

Generous Janice

Dr Sarah Engledow puts four gifts to the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection in context.

Big it up

Former National Portrait Gallery Curator Magda Keaney was a member of the selection panel of the Schwepes Photographic Portrait Prize 2004 at the National Portrait Gallery London.

Where the wild things are

Michael Desmond explores the complex portrait of Dr Bob Brown by Harold 'The Kangaroo' Thornton.

Nocturnal animals

Joanna Gilmour explores the enticing urban shadows cast by artists Martin Lewis and Edward Hopper.

Moving in creative circles

Harold Cazneaux's portraits of influential Sydneysiders included Margaret Preston and Ethel Turner, both important figures in the development of ideas about Australian identity and culture.

Thousand mile stare

John Elliott talks about his photographic portrait practice, including his iconic image of Slim Dusty arm-in-arm with Dame Edna Everage.

Secure the shadow ere the substance fade

The tragic tale of Tom Wills, the ‘inventor’ of Australian Rules Football.

Study in scarlet

Angus Trumble reflects on the force of nature that was Helena Rubinstein.

Sophisticated and glamorous

Michael Riley’s early portraits by Amanda Rowell.

Earth to earth

Dr Sarah Engledow discusses the recent gift of works by David Campbell.

The Philosophy of Teapots and Ducks

Cartoonist Michael Leunig's insights into the human condition and current affairs have become famous Australia-wide.

Home and away

Sir William Dobell painted the portraits of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones and Sir Hudson Fysh, who did much to promote the image of Australia in this country and abroad.

Black and white history

English artist Benjamin Duterrau took up the cause of the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania with his detailed and sympathetic renderings.

International issue

Michael Desmond looks at the history of the Vanity Fair magazine in conjunction with the exhibition Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008

I'm not there

The essence of you

Lee Tulloch remembers her great friend NIDA-trained actor turned photographer Stuart Campbell.

Out of the shadows

Joanna Gilmour profiles the life and times of the shutter sisters May and Mina Moore.

Two painters

Chris Chapman explains how Matthys Gerber bridges the gap between abstraction and portraiture.

Hyperversity

Dr Sarah Engledow writes about the larger-than-life Australian performance artist, Leigh Bowery.

The Vanity model

Vanity Fair Editor David Friend describes how the rebirth of the magazine sated our desire for access into the lives of celebrities and set the standard for the new era of portrait photography.

The family scene

Traudi Allen discovers sensitivity, humour and fine draughtsmanship in the portraiture of John Perceval.

Be bold

The name of Florence Broadhurst, one of Australia’s most significant wallpaper and textile designers, is now firmly cemented in the canon of Australian art and design.

Activating the space

Sandra Phillips on portraits of Indigenous activism from Cairns Art Gallery’s 2019 Queen’s Land Blak Portraiture exhibition.

The world of Thea Proctor

The world of Thea Proctor was the National Portrait Gallery's second exhibition to follow the life of a single person, following Rarely Everage: The lives of Barry Humphries.

Sibly irresistible

Alexandra Roginski reveals a forceful feminist figure in the colonial period’s slippery science, phrenology.

Augustus serendipitous

The London-born son of an American painter, Augustus Earle ended up in Australia by accident in January 1825. 

Demimonde liaisons

Jane Raffan feasts on modernity’s entrée in the Belle Époque theatre of the demimonde.

In profile

Penelope Grist explores the photographic instinct of four-time National Photographic Portrait Prize finalist Julian Kingma.

Listomania

Sarah Engledow describes the fall-out once Brett Whiteley stuck Patrick White’s list of his loves and hates onto his great portrait of the writer.

Safe space

Amy Middleton on the power of portraiture in promoting inclusivity and connecting with intersectionality and diversity in all its forms.

An actress and her fans

Dr. Sarah Engledow discovers the amazing life of Ms. Hilda Spong, little remembered star of the stage, who was captured in a portrait by Tom Roberts.

Off her own bat

Joanna Gilmour profiles Violet Teague, whose sophisticated works hid her originality and non-conformity in plain sight.

Petal to the mettle

Sarah Engledow lauds the very civil service of Dame Helen Blaxland.

Alternative virtue

Joanna Gilmour presents John Kay’s portraits of a more infamous side of Edinburgh.

Technical terminology

Michael Desmond introduces some of the ideas behind the exhibition Present Tense: An imagined grammar of portraiture in the digital age.

A feast of friends

John Singer Sargent: a painter at the vanguard of contemporary movements in music, literature and theatre.

Waiting for Godot

'Artist and actors, advancing spasmodically, find their rhythm together' writes Sarah Engledow.

Head, hand, heart

An extensive selection of portraits by John Brack were on display at the National Portrait Gallery in late 2007.

The silent partner

One half of the team that was Eltham Films left scarcely a trace in the written historical record, but survives in a vivid portrait.

Regarding Henrys

Sarah Engledow ponders the divergent legacies of Messrs Kendall and Lawson.

A real Pratt

The death of a gentlewoman is shrouded in mystery, a well-liked governor finds love after sorrow, and two upright men become entangled in the historical record.

The Lawrence lustre

Angus Trumble salutes the glorious portraiture of Sir Thomas Lawrence.

Pop poet

Dr Anne Sanders previews the works in the new focus exhibition Paul Kelly and The Portraits.

An Australian story

In his speech launching the new National Portrait Gallery building on 3 December 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd set the Gallery in a national and historical context.

Self-effacing

Michael Wardell samples the fare in the University of Queensland National Self-portrait Prize.

Eating the seasons

Anne Sanders imbibes Tony Bilson’s gastronomic revolution.

You are who?

Joanna Gilmour reflects on merging collections and challenging traditional assumptions around portraiture in WHO ARE YOU.

Fits of delicacy and despair

Henry Mundy's portraits flesh out notions of propriety and good taste in a convict colony.

Heartfelt

The portrait of Janet and Horace Keats with the spirit of the poet Christopher Brennan is brought to life by artist Dora Toovey.

The importance of being bearded

Joanna Gilmour discovers that the beards of the ill-fated explorers Burke and Wills were as epic as their expedition to traverse Australia from south to north.

Splendid, many-splendoured

Sandra Bruce gazes on love and the portrait through Australian Love Stories’ multi-faceted prism.

Shiny, happy people

Glynis Jones on the Powerhouse’s retrospective of one of Australia’s foremost fashion reportage and social photographers.

Risky business

John Zubrzycki lauds the characters of the Australian escapology trade.

In good company

Jean Appleton’s 1965 self portrait makes a fine addition to the National Portrait Gallery’s collection writes Joanna Gilmour.

You beauty

Joanna Gilmour explores the fact and fictions surrounding the legendary life of Irish-born dancer Lola Montez.

Friends and Acquaintances

Dr. Sarah Engledow discusses a collection of drawings and prints by the Victorian artist Rick Amor acquired in 2005.

In a good paddock

Celebrating a new painted portrait of Joseph Banks, Sarah Engledow spins a yarn of the naturalist, the first kangaroo in France and Don, a Spanish ram.

The activist A-list

Dr Sarah Engledow examines a number of figures in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery who were pioneers or substantial supporters of the seminal Australian environmental campaigns of the early 1970s and 1980s.

Big bouquet of Blackmans

Dr. Sarah Engledow explores the context surrounding Charles Blackman's portrait of Judith Wright, Jack McKinney and their daughter Meredith.

Getting a head

Alexandra Roginski gets a feel for phrenology’s fundamentals.

The incomparable Beaton

To accompany the exhibition Cecil Beaton: Portraits, held at the NPG in 2005, this article is drawn from Hugo Vickers's authorised biography, Cecil Beaton (1985).

More cash than dash

Joanna Gilmour describes how colonial portraitists found the perfect market among social status seeking Sydneysiders.

Man of war

Tedi Bills talks to George Gittoes about canvassing conflict.

The real Thea

Long after the portraitist became indifferent to her, and died, a beguiling portrait hung over its subject.

A sketch for some portraits

Judith Pugh reflects on Clifton Pugh's approach to portrait making.

Thrown together

Shipmates for years, James Cook and Joseph Banks each kept a journal but neither man shed light on their relationship.